TEACHERS should focus on threats to health and well being when talking about drugs, rather than getting tied up in debates about the law, says the Local Government Association (LGA).
Moves towards relaxing the drugs laws do not mean schools should change their approach to the issue, the association said. Behaviour such as smoking cannabis would still be considered wrong within schools, no matter what its legal status in the outside world.
Home Secretary David Blunkett recently downgraded the status of the drug, so that the penalties for using it are now less severe. That in turn has raised questions about whether schools should consider a change of approach.
But an LGA spokesman said: “We do not see that there is any need for the message to change. We must be clever about the messages which go to young people about the impact of drugs. They have been about the impact on the body of all kinds of substances including tobacco and alcohol. So from the point of view of schools, nothing changes whatever category of drug cannabis may be.”
He said the LGA collaborated with the Department for Education and Skills in producing drugs guidance, and added that there were no current plans to change it. “This is a very new debate and people are still coming to terms with it.”
A spokeswoman for the Department for Education and Skills said current guidance on drug education to schools came in the form of several documents, including a circular Drug Prevention and Schools.
This circular sets out what pupils at each of the key stages should be taught and recommends how the issue should be tackled through personal and social education. It also stresses the importance of parental involvement and advises on the management of drug-related incidents on the school premises.
Other drugs guidance is available in the 1998 White Paper Protecting Young People. The Government has also worked with the charity DrugScope on a series of publications about drugs policy in schools.
The spokeswoman for the DFES added that there were currently no plans to update departmental guidance on drugs policy.
* For more information on drugs education policy, visit the DFES website at http:www.dfee.gov.ukcirculars4_95summary.html The Protecting Young People white paper is available at http:www.dfee.gov.ukprotectcontents.htm l Or visit DrugScope’s website at www.drugscope.org.uk.
